Rise of the machines

Does it’s mouth open?

Asking for a friend.

4 Likes

That’s the fella - soz about the title.

She must be in her 70’s but you’d never guess it.

Mrs C_S recommended the book to me. I’m worried - read the book and you’ll know why…

A teaser - straight, gay, straight Elvis’s - very funny.

1 Like

I’d hope so given that it talks, other wise it’d be like knobbing Roger De Courcey

5 Likes

I generally agree. Prof David Autor says a similar thing. He neatly compares two oil-rich states (Norway and Saudi Arabia) and highlights the differences as being institutional. (If you’ve got 20 mins to spare, take a look at his TED talk here)

The problem is (as he also points out) technology ends up increasingly stratifying society. Growth in jobs is at the top end among professionals and at the bottom end in providing services for those professionals. This is at the expense of the middle class, which is so easily automated. Look at any car factory. These are good jobs attracting good wages but although we produce far more cars in this country then we ever have in the past, these factories employ a fraction of the people they used to employ. When production and avergely skilled service jobs go, where do the people made redundant end up? Working in care homes? Security guards? Fast food? Driving lorries? Setting up on their own at below minimum wage?

All these things need to be done but, I’d argue, this is creating a divide in society (more pronounced in the US) of the elite and the plebs (as you put it). Automation is making this worse, not better.

4 Likes

We can all see what Fatso has latched onto.

1 Like

It’s all a matter of taste I guess…

Pretty sure that is how Our MPs have been trying to seduce the Westminister bar staff, hence all the kerfuffle right now

Which is why I support the idea of a national corporation so everyone can benefit from these things.

It’s the classic who owns the means of production thing, just polarised.

Your average lad on the council estate doesn’t have a robot factory. Your average corporation can’t be trusted. Your average politician can be bunged out if they do a shit job.

A collective investment in an automated society could reap tremendous dividends for society at large, but if they don’t, people will ask why Mr Rich Man has the Robot Factory.

I don’t think they’ll be satisfied with the answers, which is why the new social contract is so essential.

Anyone here work in law or tax? Top of the professions at risk of automation according to one of my PhD students.

https://twitter.com/GKTFO/status/928700531102683136

3 Likes

Yuk.

I couldn’t bear nookie with De Courcey.

Again.

Anyway, 'slowlane was interested in whether they’d still be able to take their teeth out.

And drink cocoa.

3 Likes

A sex robot, who could be “seduced”. I’m no expert, but if you’re in the market for a sex robot, you’re not wasting time on any seduction.

1 Like

Happy for a robot to take over my job. It would need to gather info from various sources, meet children and parents/carers/family gather info. Using theory, observation, different ways of talking to those people, direct work tools and being empathetic. Write it all up in different case notes, pull it all together in an assessment using evidence for the conclusion, recommending plans for children to ensure they are safe. On top of that fielding numerous calls and emails. Lots of visits, going with police, other professionals. Making referrals to other agencies for specific pieces of work. Attending court, giving evidence, writing reports etc, etc…

When is the robot taking over? I need a rest. Think my job comes in under number 1 on this list.

have-you-got-one-of-the-most-stressful-jobs-7063089/

1 Like

The danger is that under our current capitalist system, the job-taking-robots can design and build other job-taking-robots…and essentially we approach a singularity where private companies invent labour-saving devices/machines/computers which in one fell swoop outcompete the labour of other countries like China and India and obliterate their economy back to the stone age, whilst a relatively minescule class of elites become outright God-like trillionaires having a complete stranglehold on almost every single industry.

If Facebook invents this shit, then what should China do in response? What would it make sense for them to do given the fact that hundreds of millions of their citizens will in one fell swoop become totally economically unproductive and essentially a completely dependent class of adult children that need looking after?

It was interesting listening to a Sam Harris/Joe Rogan conversation on the future of AI a while back; many people in the scientific community seriously believe that AI is a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear war.

I don’t get the idea of sex robots. I mean I can completely understand the market for enhanced male masturbatory devices but surely they’d be better off going down the route of some kind of a virtual reality headset and a gizmo that wanks you off whilst you can watch ‘yourself’ plough Alexis Texas from behind? Or at least something within that realm rather than a piece of really, really obvious plastic that’s still miiiiiiles away from looking actually human.

1 Like

There’s a reason that the tech companies have been investing so much in automation and AI. It cut’s out the human element. Amazon’s model works by selling everything at a lower cost. Everything is automated, the only flaw is distribution and those pesky humans who have to operate those driving machines (trucks). They’re working on getting over this complication.

Robocunts

1 Like

The other scary technological development (and this is another reason why I’ve become more and more left-wing economically) lies in eugenics. I don’t know if this is too much of a tangent but again, under a capitalist system, as eugenics technology becomes better and better and more and more within reach, we’ll be seeing the exclusively wealthy able to genetically engineer their kids to be the tallest, strongest, most beautiful and handsome, the most intelligent, the most talented and so on. Its going to be a case of “the poor are fat and ugly because they eat crap food” x 100.

Bit like Gattaca @mrtrampoline ?

Physio - 2.1% chance of being robotised, on the one hand my job is safe :lou_lol:, on the other no early retirement for me :lou_sad:

we’re functioning automatic… taking all your jobs next week…

1 Like